My commitment has always been to provide parents with the best information available to help with the college process. I recently listened to
two podcasts on How to Pay for College HQ about scholarships. The guest was Elizabeth Hartley, owner of Scholarship Gold Consulting. I thought the information was so valuable, I wanted to share some of the excerpts with you. Make a point to listen to both complete interviews (you won’t regret it and you will save money paying for college) via the podcasts.
Q. Is the PSAT important?
The goal is not really pursuing the National Merit Scholarship itself. If your child finds out in December after taking the test that he scored above the National Merit Cutoff for your state, then there is much rejoicing. It won’t be until September of the Senior year (almost a year since he took the two hour test his Junior year) that your student will then get notified by National Merit Scholarship Corporation that he/she has been named a Semi-Finalist. The goal is to shoot for your state’s merit index cutoff–the student doesn’t have to be perfect.
Once your student meets that goal, they will become a semi-finalist for the National Merit Scholarship. 96% of students move on to the finalist category if they complete the paperwork.
The $2,500 comes out of the pocket of the National Merit Corporation. THE BIG MONEY COMES FROM JUST MAKING FINALIST.
There is a benign little question where the student is asked to please indicate their school of choice when completing the Semi-Finalist paperwork. There are a lot of schools that care that you put their name down. Schools care so much about you putting their name down that instantly the student will get full tuition, room and board, books and fees, free lap top, study abroad, spending money, automatic entrance into the honors college, best housing and the ability to register first for all of your classes until you graduate. All they had to do was perform well on a two hour test and mark that school down on the application paperwork.
Q. What are your favorite online resources for parents and students to find scholarships?
They each track about $19 billion of independent scholarship money. Parents and students start as early as 7th grade looking for scholarships. It’s like eHarmony for scholarships where they set up a profile and then it helps connect to the scholarships best suited that can be pursued independently. They are one time awards that can vary from $500 to $2500.
Q. How do the universities distribute money?
The Admissions office has control over Merit money, which is their way of saying your student is awesome and they really want your student to attend. The University likes something about your student and by them attending it will make the University look better, which helps their national ranking. They like your child, but they really like their numbers. Even athletic scholarships are a form of Merit money. Money not based on need, but something that the college wants to help benefit them.
Financial Aid department has the need based bucket, which is based on the families assets and income.
Q. Where can you get the most money–state schools or private universities?
The most expensive schools are often the cheapest schools even for the middle income family because they have the deepest pockets.
State Schools operate under a state budget and operate under tax dollars. State schools are not being mean by not offering as much Merit Aid, they just don’t have the deep pocket endowments like most private colleges. For a strong student a state school can end up being more expensive that a private college. For an above average student the private schools will come in on par with state schools if not less.
Q. What makes a top student?
It is all relative to the school they are pursuing. Check each school of choice for their average SATs scores and GPA requirements and it will help to rank your student as an average student or above average student for that particular school.
Don’t spend your high school trying to check off every box so that is looks good on your resume. Go find your passions and be good at those. Find what you are great and follow those to great success! Challenge students to find out if the are a fish or a squirrel and then go be great at that special gift.
To get all the detailed information and understand the entire financial aid process, be sure to listen to the podcasts.
You can listen on the website, via iTunes, or with Stitcher.